Magnetic door gasket



March 17, 1964 A. J. SWANECK, JR 3,125,389

MAGNETIC DOOR GASKET Filed Jan. 31, 1962 E2 I2 22 I5 I i I Q I4 I8 I Fig.5.

INVENTOR Anrhony J. Swaneck, Jr.

ATTORNEY Fig.2.

United States Patent 3,125,389 MAGNETIC DOOR GASKET Anthony J. Swaneck, Jr., Columbus, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Jan. 31, 1962, Ser. No. 170,218 Claims. (Cl. 312-296) This invention relates to magnetic gaskets, and relates more particularly to magnetic gaskets used between the doors and cabinets of domestic refrigerators.

Magnetic gaskets are used between the doors and cabinets of domestic refrigerators for the two purposes of exerting door closing forces, and of maintaining seals between the doors and cabinets when the doors are closed. Prior constructions have used magnets within gaskets along the handle side edges of the doors for both purposes, and in order to provide the necessary reach out forces for closing the doors, such magnets have had to be so strong that not only have they been expensive, but they have distorted the gaskets within which they are contained, and have required large door opening forces.

This invention uses two types of inexpensive magnets within gaskets for the purposes of exerting door closing forces, and of maintaining seals when the doors are closed, one type being the stronger and smaller, and located nearer the door hinges than formerly, and used to close the doors, and the other type being much weaker, and used to provide seals.

In one embodiment of this invention, a refrigerator door having vertically extending, hinge and handle side edges, and having horizontally extending, top and bottom edges, has a magnetic gasket with a vertically extending side portion supported slightly inwardly of the handle side edge of the door, and with horizontally extending, top and bottom portions supported slightly inwardly of the top and bottom edges respectively, of the door. Inexpensive, relatively short, door closing magnets are supported within the top and bottom portions of the gaskets at their centers. Since the width of the gap between each magnet and the adjacent cabinet surface to which it is attracted is just half that between the handle side edge of the door and the adjacent cabinet surface when the door is partially open, the magnetic force required to close the door is considerably less than that required when the door closing magnets are located at the handle side edge of the door, so that weaker, less expensive magnets can be used. The weaker magnets produce less gasket distortion, and much less holding force than formely was required to be overcome to open the door.

Another inexpensive magnet, much weaker than the door closing magnets, is located within the remainder of the top and bottom gasket portions, and within all of the gasket portion at the handle side edge of the door, and provides the necessary sealing force, it having insufficient strength to exert any effective door closing force. This magnet produces much less gasket distortion than the relatively strong magnets previously used for sealing.

An object of this invention is to reduce the costs of magnetic gaskets used for closing the doors of, and for maintaining seals between the doors and cabinets of, domestic refrigerators.

Another object of this invention is to reduce the magnetic force required to close the door of a domestic refrigerator.

Another object of this invention is to use short, relatively strong, door closing magnets, and a long-relatively weak, seal maintaining magnet, in a magnetic gasket of a domestic refrigerator.

This invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings, of which:

3,125,389 Patented Mar. 17, 1964 FIG. 1 is a front view of a two-door refrigerator having one door shown in wide open position, and equipped with a magnetic gasket embodying this invention,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the open door;

FIG. 3 is a section along the lines IIIIII of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section along the lines IV--IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a section along the lines VV of FIG. 2, and shows the locations of the magnetic poles on a door closing magnet, and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a portion of the seal maintaining magnet shown in section by FIG. -4.

A domestic refrigerator 10 has a casing or cabinet 12 with two doors at its front, one door 13 having a door opening handle 14, being shown closed, and the other door 16 being shown as wide open. The door 16 when closed, covers a rectangular access opening 15 to a storage space 17. The doors are supported from the cabinet 12 by hinges 13 about vertical axes, the one for the door 16 being shown as AA.

Attached to the inner face of the door 16 adjacent to its top, bottom, and handle side edges, is a magnetic gasket 20 which contacts, when the door is closed, a seating surface 22 of magnetically permeable material forming a portion of the cabinet 12. The gasket 20 has horizontally extending, upper and lower portions 24 and 26 respectively, and has a vertically extending portion 30 at the handle side edge of the door 16. A non-magnetic gasket 28 is attached to the inner face of the door 16, and extends vertically alongside its hinge side edge. The gasket portions 24, 26 and 30, and the gasket 28 are of vinyl plastic, and are arranged as sides of a rectangle around the access opening 15, and are mitered, butted and joined at the corners of the rectangle.

The gasket 20 has a base portion 32 which is generally C-shaped in section, for receiving an edge of a screwfastened, inner loor panel 33 by means of which the gasket is attached to the inner face of the door 16. The gasket 20 also has an elongated, balloon-like, striking bead 34 of tubular construction which extends longitudinally of and outwardly from the base portion 32.

The beads 34 in the longitudinal central portions of the upper and lower gasket portions 24 and 26 respectively, are filled with short, relatively wide, door closing, permanent magnets 40 which are rectangular in section. The magnets 40 consist of a body 42 of magnet material such as barium ferrite, which preferably is compression molded and backed with a flux plate 44 of material having a high magnetic permeability. The flux plate 44 provides a low reluctance flux path at the back of the magnet 40, thus shunting the flux about the back of the body 42 instead of requiring it to pass longitudinally therethrough, with the result that the attractive force of the magnet is increased. The front face of the magnet body facing in the same direction as the striking surface of the bead 34, is magnetized as shown by FIG. 5, to have at least two, unlike or opposite, magnetic poles arranged in general alignment with the horizontally extending gasket portion in which it is enclosed, and preferably, there are three unlike magnetic poles as shown by FIG. 5, of alternately opposite polarity. This construction gives the long range, door closing magnets 40 a highly directional and extended flux field in the direction of the seat 22 to which it is attracted, because the flux plate 44 confines the flux lines and reduces losses which might result from the magnetic field straying to other magnetically attractive surfaces of the cabinet 12.

The vertically extending gasket portion 30, and the horizontally extending, upper and lower gasket portions 24 and 26, except for where the magnets 40 are located in the centers of the upper and lower gasket portions, have as spaced-apart, side walls 47 and bottom walls 48 forming with the striking walls, inner chamber 36 within the beads, which contain relatively narrow permanent magnets 38 which extend the length of the gasket portion 30, and which extend the length of the gasket portions 24 and 26 except where the latter contain the door closing magnets 40 in their central portions.

The magnets 38 are rectangular in cross section, and each has, as shown by FIG. 6, two, elongated, opposite magnetic poles N and S which are spaced apart on one longitudinally extending pole surface thereof. This pole surface faces in the same direction as the striking surface of the bead 34 of the gasket portion in which the magnet 38 is enclosed. Materials such as barium ferrite are suitable for being so magnetized. Preferably the magnetic material is originally in powdered or granulated form and, together with a rubber or rubber-like bonding substance, is molded to shape and then magnetized. Such bonding gives the magnet 38 a measure of flexibility which minimizes the chances of breakage in service, and renders the gasket portions in which the magnets 38 are enclosed, conformable to irregular shaped contact surfaces of the seat 22.

A magnet magnetized in the manner of the magnet 38, as shown by FIG. 6, has its opposite magnetic poles in close proximity to each other so that the flux path will be closely confined, and will have, therefore, short range attractive effect. This type of magnet is especially advantageous from the viewpoint of economy since it can be extruded and magnetized in long lengths, and cut to desired lengths with a minimum of effort. Permanent magnets of this type are most effective after an armature has been brought into contact with them, or close by as in the present case, and they then are effective to maintain the armature in these positonal relationship, thus making them effective for gasket sealing purposes.

By moving the door closing magnets from the positions usually occupied by such magnets at the handle side edge of a door, to positions midway between the handle side edge and the hinge side edge, the reach out magnetic force required for closing the door can be substantially reduced. For example, with a half-inch door opening at the handle side edge, there is a quarter-inch air gap at the midposition. Due to the exponential relation between gap and magnetic force, a door closing magnet at the midposition need be only as strong as a corresponding magnet at the handle side edge. Thus, a much less expensixe magnet can be used at the midposition for closing the door. Also, considering that a door hinge is a fulcrum at one end of a lever, the other end of which is at the door handle, less force is required for opening the door, for the door opening force is applied at the end of a lever while the force acting to maintain the door closed is at the center of the lever.

By using the relatively short, relatively strong magnets 40 for closing the door, the relatively weak, relatively long magnets 38 can be used for providing the necessary gasket seal without excessive gasket distortion.

While the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, having a door member for closing said opening mounted on said cabinet member for swinging movement about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members along a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom and side portions; of permanent magnets within said top and bottom portions and spaced from said side portions and having flat sides facing the other of said members, said other member having magnetically attractable surfaces opposite said fiat magnet sides, said magnets having like magnetic poles at their ends and having magnetic poles opposite to said like poles at their centers.

'2. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, having a door member for closing said opening mounted on said cabinet member for swinging movement about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members along a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom and side portions; of permanent magnets within said top and bottom portions and spaced from said side portions and having flat sides facing the other of said members, said other member having magnetically attractable surfaces opposite said flat magnet sides, said magnets having like magnetic poles at their ends and magnetic poles opposite to said like poles, at their centers, having other fiat sides opposite said flat sides, and having flux plates of a material having high magnetic permeability in contact with said other flat sides.

3. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on said cabinet member for swinging movement about an upright axis; of

a magnetic gasket secured to one or said members and having top and bottom portions extending alongside the top and bottom respectively, of said opening and having a side portion extending along the side edge of said one member opposite to the side edge thereof which is adjacent to said axis, said gasket portions having tubular striking beads,

relatively wide permanent magnets within intermediate portions of said beads of said top and bottom portions, said magnets having like poles at their ends, having poles opposite to said like poles at their centers, having fiat sides facing other member, having other fiat sides opposite said fiat sides, and having flux plates of a material having high magnetic permeability in contact with said other fiat sides, the remaining portions of said beads of said top and bottom portions and the head of said side portion havmg inner walls forming inner chambers, and relatively narrow permanent magnets within and extending the lengths of said inner chambers, said narrow magnets having flat sides facing said other member with spaced-apart unlike poles on and extending the lengths of said last mentioned flat sides, said other member having magnetically permeable surfaces opposite said magnets.

4. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on said cabinet member for swinging movement about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members along a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom and side portions; of relatively wide, relatively short permanent magnets within intermediate portions of said top and bottom portions and having ends spaced substantial distances from said sides, one of said side portions extending along the side edge of said one member which is opposite to the side edge thereof which is adjacent to said axis, and

relatively narrow permanent magnets within and extending the lengths of the remaining portions of said top and bottom portions, and within and extending the length of said one side portion, said other member having magnetically attractable surfaces opposite said magnets, said relatively Wide magnets having like poles at their ends and having poles opposite to said like poles at their centers, having fiat sides facing said other member, having other flat sides opposite said flat sides, and having flux plates of a material of high magnetic permeability in contact with said other flat sides, said relatively narrow magnets having flat sides facing said other member With spaced-apart unlike poles on and extending the lengths of said last mentioned flat sides.

5. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, having a door member for closing said opening mounted on said cabinet member for swinging movement about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members along a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom and side portions; of relatively short, permanent, door member-closing magnets within intermediate portions of said top and bottom portions and having ends spaced substantial distances from said sides, one

of said side portions extending along the side edge of said one member which is opposite to the side edge thereof which is adjacent to said axis, and

relatively long, seal-forming magnets within the remaining portions of said top and bottom portions and within said one side portion, said other member having magnetically attractable surfaces opposite said magnets, said door member-closing magnets having like magnetic poles at'their ends and having poles opposite to said like poles at their centers, having flat sides facing said other member, having other flat sides opposite said fiat sides, and having flux plates of a material having high magnetic perme ability in contact with said other flat sides, said sealforming magnets having flat sides facing said other member with spaced-apart, unlike poles on and extending the lengths of said last mentioned flat sides.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,659,114 Anderson Nov. 17, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 835,492 Great Britain May 18, 1960 

1. THE COMBINATION WITH A CABINET MEMBER HAVING AN ACCESS OPENING IN AN UPRIGHT PLANE, HAVING A DOOR MEMBER FOR CLOSING SAID OPENING MOUNTED ON SAID CABINET MEMBER FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT ABOUT AN UPRIGHT AXIS, AND HAVING A GASKET SECURED TO ONE OF SAID MEMBERS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING AROUND SAID OPENING, SAID GASKET HAVING TOP, BOTTOM AND SIDE PORTIONS; OF PERMANENT MAGNETS WITHIN SAID TOP AND BOTTOM PORTIONS AND SPACED FROM SAID SIDE PORTIONS AND HAVING FLAT SIDES FACING THE OTHER OF SAID MEMBERS, SAID OTHER MEMBER HAVING MAGNETICALLY ATTRACTABLE SURFACES OPPOSITE SAID FLAT MAGNET SIDES, SAID MAGNETS HAVING LIKE MAGNETIC POLES AT THEIR ENDS AND HAVING MAGNETIC POLES OPPOSITE TO SAID LIKE POLES AT THEIR CENTERS. 